Rhetorical Analysis Of Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth is one of the world’s most known women’s rights advocates. Her birth name was Isabella and she was born in 1799 in New York to her parents, who were both slaves. Isabella was moved from family to family throughout her life, being a slave for as long as she could remember, but she remained with the Dumont family for seventeen years out of her life (Painter). Isabella married young and did something that was never done before: sued a member of the Dumont family for the illegal selling of her son and won him back (Painter). Even early in her life, Isabelle was destined for great things; she left everything behind, including her husband, and moved to New York to become emancipated, which is where she began to closely follow

the prophesies of William Miller (Painter). Isabella sensed the world was coming to an end and followed what she believed was the Holy Spirit’s directions and changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began traveling east to preach about the need for Jesus (Painter). When the world did not end, Sojourner moved to Massachusetts, which is where she became dominant in the anti- slavery and women’s rights movements. The speech, Ain’t I a Woman, given in 1851, is known as one of her most famous speeches, which talks about giving equal rights to black and white women. This speech was given at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio to both men and women to shed light on the issue of African American women not getting equal rights. Sojourner Truth makes a powerful speech that opens discussion on women’s rights and provokes a change in society.
Sojourner Truth’s speech left a powerful impact on its audience because of how it was delivered to them. Truth’s speech was an emotional appeal that many could relate to, in particular the African American women listening. By reading the text of the speech, there are emotions flowing throughout the entire length. Truth states “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!” (Young 123), which is a clear sign that her emotions are running the speech. Truth’s talk about women’s rights closely relates to her and her struggles of being a slave throughout her life, which is why she is emotionally invested in her speech. By being lively towards the topic, Truth grabs the attention of her audience, which in this case, is what she wanted. She keeps her speech short and simple so that her audience understands her point quickly, which is that all women should be treated equal, no matter what race they may be. Sojourner Truth is evoking a sermon on women’s rights and attempting to aspire change for women and spark the women’s rights movement in general. Truth’s sermon was very powerful and her audience responded auspiciously, making her rhetorical strategy successful.
Truth uses her emotions, along with rhetorical questions, cultural references, and repetition, in order to prove her point about women’s rights.

Her emotions are shown throughout the whole speech and her background of being in slavery for most of her life shows that the topic of equal rights for women is very important to her. Sojourner Truth uses rhetorical questions to get her point across that all women are equal. “I could work and eat as much as a man- when I could get it- and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?” (Young 123). Her rhetorical question of “And ain’t I a woman?” is used throughout her speech and this demonstrates her point that she should be treated equal to any other human being because she can achieve the same as any man or woman. Her emotions towards women’s rights are shown when she engages the audience in her speech. “They talk about this thing in the head: what’s it called? [A member of the audience calls out, “intellect”] That’s it, honey! What’s that got to do with women’s or negroes’ rights?” (Young 123). Her point in this statement is that she does not understand if all people have intellect, why are women, in particular, treated differently than me; a person is a person no matter what. By engaging the audience, Truth grabs the attention of the people listening to her speech and they get emotionally invested in it, just like the speaker. The use of repetition in Sojourner’s speech displays how her sermon was an emotional appeal

to the audience. “Where did you Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him!” (Young 123). Her emotions about the women’s rights movement and her religion are present in this statement and the use of repetition shows just how important both of these things are in Truth’s life, making the speech even more passionate. Truth strategically made her speech short, simple, and easy to follow in order to captivate her audience quickly and to get them to agree with her position. “Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say” (Young 123). By ending her speech like this and not with a lengthy conclusion, Truth’s audience feels the powerful message that she was proving because she simply says what she needs to say to fulfill her message properly, and walks off the stage. By making the sermon simple and emotional, Sojourner Truth captured the attention of men and women at the conference and proved that there needed to be a change in how people viewed women in society. Her speech left a powerful message to men and women all around the world and triggered change in the equality of women to men.
Sojourner Truth chose to give her speech in an emotional manner rather than a logical, scholarly position because it was something important to her that was a big deal and needed to be addressed.

Because of Truth’s background as an African American woman slave with little rights, the equality of women applied to her life and she was able emotionally invest in the speech since equality was something she wanted in her own life. By speaking about something that applied to her, Truth was able to connect to her audience and really show how important the topic of women’s rights is. Sojourner Truth was successful in using an emotional appeal to connect with her audience because they felt more united to her since it was evident of how important women equality was to her. By using repetition and rhetorical questions, Sojourner Truth proved her point to her listeners and got them thinking about what she was saying. The rhetorical questions and repetition highlighted the important points she was trying to make in her speech and by using those strategies, Truth’s point was successfully made and clear to the spectators. Her speech was short and clear to understand, making it apparent Sojourner knew what she was talking about. Since the sermon was short and to the point, Truth was able to get her point across quickly, making it easy for the audience to follow and get engaged. Sojourner Truth was very successful when giving her Ain’t I a Woman speech at the Women’s Rights

Convention in 1851, captivating her audience by using emotions and persuasive methods when she spoke to prove her point that all women should be equal, no matter what race they are.